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‘Don’t want him to lose another year’: Karnataka HC asks law colleges to reserve seats for transgender student
The Karnataka High Court directed the reservation of seats at BMS College of Law and Seshadripuram Law College for a transgender student who had previously been denied admission to NLSIU.
The student approached the court in 2023 after being refused admission by the National Law School of India University (Image generated using AI).
The Karnataka High Court Tuesday directed the state government and Karnataka State Law University (KSLU) to reserve one seat each for a transgender student at BMS College of Law and Seshadripuram Law College.
A division bench of Justice Anu Sivaraman and Justice Tara Vitasta Ganju took on record the memo filed by KSLU indicating the colleges affiliated to the university to which the student could apply for admission, and then noted in the order the names of the two colleges preferred by the student from the list provided by the university.
In the order, the bench said, “Respondents are directed to reserve a seat in each of the colleges. Further, it is made clear that it is to be done without prejudice to the contentions of the respondent (student) and without prejudice to his right to make an application in any other college.” The bench orally said that all the facilities would be provided to the student.
The legal battle
The student approached the court in 2023 after being refused admission by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) and sought directions to the state government and the university to implement the Karnataka State Policy on Transgenders, 2017, and to provide reservations for transgender people, including the petitioner.
The student further sought to quash the university’s decision denying the petitioner admission and to direct the university to admit the petitioner to the three-year LLB course from the 2023-24 academic year. By way of an interim order, the court had directed the university to grant admission to a transgender person in the 3-year LLB course for the academic year 2023-24, if found eligible.
In its final order dated December 16, 2024, the single judge directed NLSIU to implement the Supreme Court’s directions in the NALSA case by formulating a reservation, along with measures to provide financial aid to TGs in education, before the commencement of the admission process for the next academic year. Also, to provide a 0.5 per cent interim reservation with a fee waiver. The university has challenged the order in appeal.
During the hearing of the appeal, NLSIU informed the court that it would not be able to grant admission to the student who had not been admitted under the interim order passed by the single judge.
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Following this, the court called upon the state government and KSLU to address whether the student can be granted financial aid and admission to an LLB programme at any law college in Karnataka. Justice Sivaraman had orally said, “He (student) has already lost three years, we do not want him to lose another year.”
Hearing deferred
NLSIU Tuesday also sought that the appeal be deferred in view of the Supreme Court order in the case of Jane Kaushik v. Union of India, and the matter be referred to the committee constituted by the Supreme Court to formulate an equal opportunity policy for the protection of the rights of transgender persons.
The bench deferred the hearing on the appeal to June but made it clear that the appeal would be decided on merits and stated that the student was not conceding to anything by taking admission in the college affiliated to KSLU. The bench told the student. “You are not conceding anything and you are here to claim your rights.”
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